NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A newly-filed lawsuit claims a Brooklyn principal removed all white staffers from the school and then retaliated against a whistleblower who pointed out misconduct.
David Rivera – the former athletic director of World Academy of Total Community Health (WATCH) High School – is suing the school, alleging that Principal Claudette Christie forced him into a “rubber room” and stunted his career, according to a New York Post report.
Christie, who came on as principal in 2013 and retired this past August, is also accused of pushing out white employees during her time at the school.
The Post reports Rivera, in the lawsuit, said Christie’s actions over the years led to a “demographic makeover of the school’s staff.”
“As a result, the Caucasian teaching staff at WATCH High School, which represented 25% of the school’s teaching staff in September 2016, represented 0% of the faculty by October 2019,” Rivera reportedly said in his suit.
Rivera said Christie began to target him because she wanted her friend to replace him, the Post reported. In his suit, he claimed that Christie’s friend, Arianna Lewis, encouraged some families to accused him of discriminated against Black staffers.
While the discrimination accusations were investigated and dismissed, Rivera said he was eventually removed as athletic director after he told Christie that some coaches were changing players’ grades and falsifying student records to enable incoming athletic transfers, according to the paper.
Christie, Lewis and the Department of Education are all named as defendants in Rivera's lawsuit claiming racial and gender discrimination.
The Post reported that Rivera claims to have faced retaliation for his reports to Christie until he was removed from the school in October 2019.
“Since October 10, 2019, Mr. Rivera has been reassigned to a ‘rubber room’ administrative office outside his school without any specific reason for his reassignment,” read court records obtained by the Post. “Nor has he been interviewed by any investigator as to why he is under investigation.”
The paper reports Rivera was also told that he was being probed for illegal recruitment of players this past May. However, those charges have since been dismissed.
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